WIFI USE: How to respect regulations and optimize Bebop Drone range

The range of Bebop Drone depends on the power of WiFi generated by the device (smartphone / tablet). This power depends on several parameters:

the type of device and its use

regulation

indoor/outdoor setting

selected channel

radio/physical environment

In general, it is better to use 2.4GHz WiFi to maximize range. If you want to focus on the quality of streaming video, it is recommended to choose 5GHz WiFi (less interference).

The Parrot Bebop Drone software features an optimized algorithm that gives advantage to the piloting reactivity than the video streaming quality.

Note that the quality of the streaming video has no influence on the quality of the video “onboard” recorded by the drone (1080p 30fps).

Protocol:

To perform these tests, the experimental protocol is as follows:

Bebop flies 20 m above ground

Fly straightkeep heading camera forward (camera forward)

Device held in its optimum position

Flight in a neutral radio environment (without disturbance Wifi)

Flight till disconnection

During these flight test sessions, the quality of the FPV experience varies. For example, you can reach 200m and then the video streaming quality decreases and then arrive around 225 m with a better one. This variation is mainly due to the physical environment around the drone. (Field, trees, buildings …)

Results

The following table shows the Bebop drone’s range results (estimated or calculated) with a Bebop No. PI040339P14K005079 with the version 1.32. FreeFlight versions used for the different smartphones / tablets are for iOS 3.1.25 and for Android 3.1.28. The tests were conducted December 3rd, 2014.

The maximal range reached by the Bebop Drone is highly correlated to the device (see Table above). Note that intrinsic Wifi performances of Bebop enable it to reach 2km with Skycontroller in optimal conditions.

To maximize the reach with your device, Wifi antennas for your phone should be oriented to the drone (without obstacles). The position of your hands on it affects the quality of the wireless connection with your drone. Try to hold your device in one direction or the other and vary its inclination.

Choose your device to learn how to hold it when you pilot:

The Skycontroller * is a device, with a very specific Wi-Fi architecture, designed for the Bebop to maximize its reach. It is not compatible with AR.Drones.

Tests conducted by the Skycontroller take into account the quality of the video streaming unlike other devices. The position of the hands on the Skycontroller does not affect the test results.

Due to the Wifi regulation, channels at the beginning and end can not reach the maximum power.Here are the best channels with Skycontroller:

Channel 6 for 2G4

Channel 44 for 5G band-1

Channel 157 for 5G band-3

The Wifi transmitter of Skycontroller is more powerful in 5 GHz than in 2.4 GHz. The power is limited following the regulations of each country. The maximum power at 2.4 GHz is about 400 mW, it is about 4W at 5 GHz on channel 157.

Regulation

Each Wifi device must meet the standards of the country in which it is used. This applies to your device and obviously to the Parrot products (in particluar, Bebop and Skycontroller). Each country imposes a maximum power and a set of authorized channels. (See Table below)

To perform the required network settings, go to Settings, and scroll with your finger to the Settings screen Networks

Country Settings:

By default, the selected setting is AUTO. Bebop Drone scans the surrounding WiFi networks and select the country it detects in the beacon frames, according to the international standard 802.11d.

When you use the Parot Bebop Drone in the US, the regulation restrains the access to the country setting.

For other countries, you can change manually the setting

Indoor-Outdoor

Wifi standards distinguish Indoor or Outdoor use, especially in the case of the 5GHz band. This configuration affects the number of available channels.

For some areas , the European zone, the 5GHz band (channels 36,40,44 and 48) are limited to Indoor use. They are therefore inaccessible if the Outdoor setting is selected.

If you select Indoor setting. The channels of the 5GHz band become available to the countries of the European zone.

Channel selection

Notable differences between the networks 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz are:

The 5GHz network has a shorter range than 2.4 GHz.

The devices configured in 2.4 GHz are more affected by interference than those configured as 5 GHz (which uses more bandwidth on a given channel).

There are fewer devices supporting 5GHz.

Bebop embeds a channel selection optimization algorithm that will evaluate the best compromise between maximum range and quality of streaming video, while favoring the latter. The channel selection by the algorithm is correlated to the Bebop environment during Bebop boot.

The transmission power of the Bebop is the same at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. It is necessary to emit twice the power at 5 GHz to have the same reach than at 2.4 GHz . Ifyou want to focus on the ranfe, configure in Auto 2.4GHz:

The channels are much less congested at 5GHz. The standard for 5GHz Wifi does not extend to the adjacent channels. If you want to focus on streaming video quality, choose the configuration in Auto at 5 GHz.

You can make your setting manually. Select Manual and click on the desired channel in the dropdown list. Reminder: some channels are not available depending on your country and setting Indoor / Outdoor.

Recommendations

Here are our recommendations to increase your drone range:

Choose your device well and check the way you hold it, in particular the position of your hands, especially when you are at the range limit .

Choose the country in which you are in the app.

Respect the indoor / outdoor setting.

Channel selection : if you are in the middle of many wifi networks, choose the auto -all mode. Otherwise, go auto -2,4 mode.

Choose an environment with less physical obstacles as possible wether in front of you or a few meters next to you (tress, fences,..)

Choose a place with the least amount of interference (other pilots, networks … ) .

Stay at a minimum altitude of 5 meters. Avoid being directly above the drone. If you want to fly high, set a distance of 50m between you and the drone.

At the range limit, aim your device to steer the drone and orientate he drone so that you can see its rear feet (camera forward)

Hello people at Parrot. I have read every independent forum site in regards to your new drone, and have read through every message on here, and it looks like you are going to be running into some service and PR issues really quickly here. For starters, if you do nothing else, help this guy out:Diego Souza • 10 days ago

First I need to make it clear that I’m not a drone starter, I have been flying couple of other drones before.

Last week I bough a Drone from Parrot company.

I did the purchase through the Best Buy online store, with the store pick up selection…

Great.. I was really excited to have the drone in my hands, since I have watched many videos about this drone and was really engaged to have one.

I went to the store and picked it up… then my problems started…

First Drone – Got the drone and went home to fly.. Unpacked it and started to fly using my Iphone 5s… then I realized that the wifi connection was going back and forward… very wired.. I tried with my IPAD and my wife’s iphone and the problem continued… when I connected with my nexus 5 the connection were more stable, and I could to fly.. I though the problem could be fixed just restarting the drone after taking it’s battery off… Well didn’t work…. The result… I was flying and lost the connection and the wind pushed my drone against a wall, result.. The camera was broke….

OK went to Best buy and related the problem, and they told me that I have to use my accidental plan that I have purchased too, in order to replace the drone(even being a problem with the drone)… Ok I did it.

Second Drone – After the replacement.. Went home again to fly it.. Unpacked one more time.. And what… the hotspot from the Drone was not working at all… one more time I went to best buy and replaced it.

Third Drone – At this time I was a little bit frustrated, but Ok, it happens…. And guess what.. This drone came with a missing part in the bottom back, it is a screw that connects to a red cushion.. And without it the drone was very unstable since it was a bit crocked.. So very hard to pilot and manage the drone…. And again the problem with the wifi with my Ipad and Iphones…. Result.. Went to best buy again to replace it.. Third time in less than 7 days.. The best buy employees at this time was laughing about me…. Not kidding.

Fourth Drone – I have now the fourth drone with me.. The drone looks good, but again the connection with IPADs and iPhones still as a problem.. And I’m getting crazy thinking that the problem was my Iphone and Ipad, but it is impossible to have 3 devices with the same problem…. 2 iphones and 1 ipad.. So I tried with one more Iphone and the problem was the same… btw.. Even flying close to the drone… like 20 meters away in an open location….. And the most wired, connecting to my nexus 5 it worked.. Lol.. I guess I’m the guy with the most bad luck ever when buying these drones.

Now I was thinking to buy the sky controller to solve the connection problem.. But guess what, they do not sell it separately… crying now……. Just want to fly with my Drone..

The product is great, well done, and the design is amazing.. I just realized that they don’t like me.. …

People at Parrot, it will be your customer service that saves you at this point Best of luck, and please, look this guy up. He posted in this thread, and take care of him.

Michael David Hiltner

I wonder if this is a File 13 work around the issues those lucky enough to have had the opportunity to fly the Bebop! I sure hope Parrot is seriously looking into these issues, vice lip service.

I also believe that the promo videos were filmed with a Bebop Prototype that had a little more muscle than what is ending up on the shelves in the stores. It may have failed FCC regulations and they had to scale back what they had initially. Of course this is just my personal opinion, and I may be wrong. Maybe the Users have no brain cells on how to install the battery, or how to find this page to understand the WiFi settings better. But what I have noticed is that Parrot once in a while responds to a post, but you never notice a follow up on the situation.

Shame.

I live in Canada. A few days ago, I purchased the AR Drone 2.0. A few days before that I updated my iPad to iOS8.x. Well we all know what that does… NO VIDEO FOR ME! NO UPLOADING MY VIDEOS! The software informs me that FreeFlight 2.x is capturing the video, as it informs me not to touch the record button! Oh well…

No Proper Documentation
No Customer Support
No Rational Thinkers in the Think Tank (other than how to price gouge the consumer, and line their retirement ASAP!).

Oh, and on my receipt (bill of sale) it clearly states that if I open the box (Break the seal), the unit is UNRETURNABLE!!! I just hope and pray that my unit does not fail me!!! I’m screwed thereafter.

I think I’ll just wait until the SkyController comes out, then I’ll purchase my Bebop (But I would need to figure out where to return it first! $1,000.00 ($1,100.00+ after Canadian Taxes) is a lot of an investment to just be tossed in the garbage!

Michael

KCT

I bought two units: I opened the box, read through all documentation, downloaded the software/controller and followed all the instructions. When I started it up in the inside mode it took off like a rocket into the ceiling. I rechecked everything and did it again with the same results, straight into the ceiling so I thought I should probably take this outside. Once outside it shot up in the same manner, banked over and crashed. The next time it hovered about 1 meter above the surface as advertised in all the info available. I maintained the however and had the drone rise in elevation in which it did to around 2 meters. I then tried to rotate the drone and it took off again like a rocket at around a 20 degree climb shot over the next house and flew out of sight, disappearing and never to be found. The second drone did the same thing with shooting up vertically (outside) to around 25 meters, it banked and crashed. Now I am getting a motor error and I will not start. So………?

Michael David Hiltner

Oh My! Not a Merry Christmas at all! Have you gone around house to house and ask permission to look around for your drone?

KCT

Yes we did – had a for man search team looking and hunting the WiFi signal. We live in a rural suburban type area with mostly open space not many trees. No luck yet.

Shawn Wells

I basically had the same thing happen to me….. If I had my time back I would have done more research before buying the parrot bebop drone….. I was taking video of my Christmas lights outside my house when all of a sudden it banked to the right, over the neighbours house and lost connection. I haven’t seen it since but will be out looking for it this morning

You are kinda innocent to believe their promotion, I mean come on, 300 meters? They can’t even get this number from a lab. I got my drone 3 days ago and I have been flying it, normally 50-80 meters would be the bottle neck, and I had been flying it in open areas. I assume that if you fly this thing in urban area with interference I doubt if it can fly beyond 50 meters.
And also, the altitude lock has a maximum of 150 meters, the thing is without skycontroller it wont go higher than 40 meters. And it does not return to the start point when connection is lost. It just hovers. Till battery almost dead. Then it started to try to land by itself. There was a time I reached altitude of 40 meters then the control connection was lost even I can still connect my phone to the drone’s wifi. It hovered up high for the rest of the battery life. It barely landed itself since the battery was completely dead after it reached the ground. Automatic powered off. Imagine if I could fly this thing to its max altitude which is 150 meters. It’s gonna blow a big hole on the ground after it loses power completely and tried to land for the first 40 meters then head straight downward. BOOM!!!
All I can say is this drone is worth the money you pay, just do not expect it to do much. Especially do not trust their promotion. They exaggerate the drone’s performance by too much.
Here are some facts what you should be expecting:

1. The battery will not last 11 minutes. Go test it yourself. It only lasts like around 7-8 minutes maximum.
2. The video it shoots is indeed 1080p in resolution, but in terms of sharpness, color, saturation, it’s the worst kind of 1080p.
3. 300 meters maximum controlling distance is a joke. Do not expect it to go beyond 80 meters. (less than 300 feet)
4. 109 meters max altitude is a joke too. (or with the skycontroller it maybe legit but you gotta pay 400 dollars more for that thing, and yet I see nowhere to buy it so far)
5. Return home feature does not work 100% accurately. If you take off in front of your house and tap on the return button, then be prepared to retrieve it from your neighbor’s roof. It could land on anywhere within some distance of where you take it off.

Overall I feel satisfied by this drone, however every time I watch their promotion video and tech spec on their website I feel like they cheated me…

Robert Brooks

I was just wondering if you have tried to use the 2.4 band only as that has more range. I had to switch mine because i kept loosing connection but have not lost it since I switched to just the 2.4 band.

Akila Zhang

THX for the reply.

Jimmyrack

I have about 10 videos already that have gone 10-11 minutes no problem you can view the, on YouTube no I don’t work for parrot but I would suggest reading around I found that if I go to manual mode channel 6 in the USA I am able to achieve straight line distance of 200 meters verified (video does get choppy/leggy at this range) and I have been able to get appx 100 meters yes I have the telemetry to prove this no I do not have the sky controller “yet” but I do like to help my fellow rc Enthusiasts before getting to those distances I was using auto on 5ghz and I was like you only able to achieve about 40 meters before losing connection the last time 1 got to 100 meters while testing its limits I did lose connection. (However it was cloudy and very humid out not rai y but it did over night) which probabl6 affected my range with the water in the air I lost complete wifi and it wouldn’t connect at all for about a minute or more eventually it turned around and headed home which was only a few paces back and started decending and I regained control the weather was bad but when it clears back up I will test again anyway hope this helps out if I am in a crowded bandwidth area I use 5gig but don’t venture out near as far

http://batman-news.com Nighty

Ohh, the horizon does not look very good in that picture. I thought that the internal cpu correct that fisheye view and save a “normal” picture as it would be done by a normal not fisheye cam? Incorrect?

Michael David Hiltner

I wonder why Parrot has not responded to this image captured by your camera?

http://www.parrot.com Parrot

Hi, thanks for sharing your experience. Concerning the picture you posted: Please update your FreeFight app and Bebop Firmware: if this issue
remains, it could indicate an issue with the front camera or the image
processing units and would require the unit to be exchanged

Akila Zhang

Thanks for the reply.

http://www.parrot.com Parrot

Hi,

Concerning the 300 m performances, those numbers were based and achieved during field
tests by our staff. This value was achieved on public Bebop Drones and will clearly depend
on several factors (the device used will have an impact and Tablets will get
far better results than smartphones, Wifi interferences and physical objects
between you and the Bebop Drone)

Furthermore, battery lifetime will depend on the way you fly and 11 minutes is achieved with slow
flights. High drifts and speed will of course drain more energy and reduce the
amount of time. Nevertherless, if you witness a life time of 7 to 8 minutes
during all types of flight, it could indicate a hardware defect of the battery
and we would recommend you to contact your reseller.

Concerning the 1080 p resolution, all these
parameters are far better when taking place outdoors under a natural light.
Also, make sure to update your Bebop Drone to get the best and latest software
improvements

Could you explain us why you say “109 meters max altitude is a joke too. (or with the skycontroller it maybelegit but you gotta pay 400 dollars more for that thing, and yet I see nowhere to buy it so far)” ?

Finally, we have working on improving the Return Home feature as we have witnessed several
unexpected behaviors. Upcoming updates will fix it

Akila Zhang

Hi. If I were you, I would not ask an ‘unhappy’ customer to explain in details why he is not happy with the product. That would make him more ‘unhappy’. I would just try to fix the problems one by one humbly without any words maybe except apologies.

Heres the answers to your questions:

First is the 109 meters max altitude. I saw it on your website. It said the max altitude was 109 meters on one of the pictures on your website. But I could not find it anymore after my first post. Now I am not sure if it was just because of me misremembered or you just deleted it. But it doesnt matter anymore. Now I see you have this 199.03 meters on your website( definitely with skycontroller ) Let’s talk with some facts. I know the max altitude and range depends on the transmitter that you use, but as far as I know the only device that has that extraordinary power is Nvidia Shield except skycontroller. Most people use PHONES and TABLETS. I tested it multiple times in an open area with two drones( a farm without wifi interference ) I do understand the radio band matters so my settings are always 2.4Ghz and I always pick a channel that has minimum interference. My nexus 5 gives about 80 meters altitude and I keep losing signal at this altitude. My iphone 6 gives about 60 meters. My ipad air 2 gives around 65 meters. And the drone keep losing signal randomly when it makes sudden movement (for instance fly straight forward with max speed after hovering). It doesnt happen quite often but it sure bothers me when the battery is below 20 percent and I have to cut off wifi on my handheld device – re-enable it – find the drones wifi – connect it – launch the App – wait til I can re-gain control over the drone.
So, with personal experience over 4 months of flying my two drones I am going to say that again: 100 meters max altitude is a joke for us who do not have a Nvidia Shield nor Skycontroller. 100 meters. IS. A. JOKE. If you are not happy with the customer telling the truth, you can either improve your product, or put those numbers that matters for us ‘non N-Shield users’ on your website.

Do some googles and you will see what I mean. Yeah sure some of you can reach 100 meters with no controllability and no video feed and you have to wait till it gets lower to re-gain control. if you are happy with it I wont say a word about it anymore.

If you think you need one more video on youtube that proves my point I will be more than happy to make a video with a much better 1080p video recorder compare to bebop drone.

Now lets head to the 1080p resolution thing. Why did I say the 1080p video quality is not very good? Because it is not good. Take a look at this:

watch close to the color and sharpness. The color looks amazing yes I admit it but it clearly was boosted too much. Now take a look at the sharpness. It looks okay by its own but it is so much worse if you compare it with Vision 2+. I own an iphone 6 plus, a nexus 5, an ipad air 2 and they all shoot 1080p video. I did the comparison. Yeah the resolution is right there 1080p no problem but the quality of the video? Nah! So I am going to say the exact same thing one more time: The bebop has the worst kind of 1080p.

Now its time to talk about battery life. Yes, you are right, the maximum flight time is probably longer than what I said on my first post, you know why? It is because one of the battery is defected. It wont charge until I try to remove it from the charger and slide it back in several times while leaving the charger in the jack. Let me tell you how do I charge that one battery: I sat there put the battery in the charger and put the whole thing into the jack, wait for like 15 seconds til the red light start to flash to tell me it wont charge, then I would take out the battery while the charger remains in the jack and put it back in til the red light to flash again. Every time I tried to charge this particular battery it took me at least 5 attempts. And it wont charge to 100%. It stops around 70%. Thats why I get 6-8 mins of flight time. Now this one particular battery is not like it has been used more than several hundreds times so it gets bad, it was like this when I got it 3 months ago. I remembered that some people complained about it on your forum and the best answer to it was someone said ‘just unplug it and put it back in’ yeah thanks to that dude I thought this is common to everyone so I missed the 30 days return policy. Now I have to stick with that defected battery.

With the other batteries that are not defected, I do get 11 mins of hovering without doing anything because I always hoped it would get as high as how you promoted it. So I kept trying to push the limit. But of course, I constantly losing signal when it gets higher. So the camera wont have to consume the battery power. I can hardly re-gain control without making some running towards the drone and raising my phone etc. After I get the connection back eventually it wont have much power left. I do some casual flying and thats it. 11 mins of flight consists most of the time hovering around 60-70 meters with camera off (super power saving right?) and several minutes of flying within 40 meters altitude and less than 100 meters range, yeah, 11 mins of flight time seems about right but still I normally get less than 10 mins flight time most of the time.

One more thing that I think you should be paying more attention on: I see most of the piloting within the US are very short timed, most of them are less than 1-2 mins. If you look carefully you should see that most of the flights that are longer than 5 mins barely exceed the 40 meters altitude. Why? As I explained, we are phone and table users and 40-50 meters are the bottle neck for us. Altitude beyond 40-50 meters is just inaccessible for us.

So after so many negative feedback from me, I do want you to know that I am happy with the video stabilization. The return home feature seemed had some improvements recently. And also, as what I said in my previous post, I am somewhat satisfied with the product I got at this price range, I just dont like it when you put those numbers that most of us will never reach, like 199 meters altitude, 300 meters range etc.

Finally, tell me if you want me to add more ‘explain us why’, I will be more than happy to let more people know the facts that I gathered.

One last thing: Where is the waypoint feature that is on your promotion video? Its been more than 3 months since the release of Bebop drone.

Rhodiebert

Not owning a Bebop – Yet. But you could launch the thing 150 m away from your position, let it pass over you and go 150 m further, hence you get 300 m range. Just kidding. But that would be one way to work around this problem, if you need a long range shot.

Is it possible to set up the Bebop Drone to maintain a certain height and distance from a controller automatically? For instance, in a “follow mode”, the drone would, say, stay 10 feet above the ground and 20 feet behind a moving controller.

So after 2 month’s i’m looking for answer if u developped finaly the “Follow mode” but no answer … I send u 2 times email, i try to contact u from Social but nothing.. :(( Is importand to me to take a videos from our (Marathone experiences) .. Plz need some answers if it is possible to create it ..

Rocksteady82

It would be really nice to get a straight answer out of these people… Anything at all would be better than pissing everyone off with ambiguous statements and/or silence. Parrot, what’s the deal? Are you having follow me issues that still need to be addressed which is preventing the release of this feature? Are you having pairing issues with the skycontroller or some other bug/problem that is preventing the release of this separately sold device? Is the skycontroller ever going to be sold separately?? What’s going on?!? Give us an ETA on the things that everyone is asking about or I swear to god my money is going to DJI next week (and I guarantee I’m not the only one)!

Napatara Athakravi

Wait there is such thing as a follow me mode but what i want to know is when will the skycontroller be sold separately from the bebop pack

Brian S.

Download AR.PRO 3 for Android for this feature. Parrot will never do it. If you are on IOS get Follow Me Bebop.

KK

Hi Parrot,

i am very much interested to buy Bebop Drone,When can i expect in South Africa,
at present i am on vacation my connecting flight is on Dubai can i buy from Dubai duty free and bring it to South Africa,is it legal in South Africa to fly Drone’s?

Will Granzier

Yet its legal to fly drones in SA !!!!! Just don’t be a chop and go fly at the airport…! I fly every weekend

fluffypony

Just came across this, your advice is both grossly incorrect and not legally sound. More specifically, failure to comply with legislation in South Africa could lead to a R50k fine or 10 years imprisonment, so it’s probably better you don’t say anything lest your bad advice lead to someone being imprisoned. The SACAA does, in fact, have an FAQ for UAS / “drones”: http://www.caa.co.za/Airworthiness%20Docs/FAQ%20for%20UAS.pdf

To touch on the key points of current legislation:

1. It IS NOT legal to fly a multicopter / drone for commercial purposes. You CANNOT charge for footage you shoot.
2. It IS NOT legal to take off from, land on, or fly over roads without permission (typically from the municipality).
3. It IS NOT legal to fly within 5 nautical miles of an airstrip.
4. It IS NOT legal to fly with limited visibility, flying at night is by special permission only.
5. It IS NOT legal to drop ballast or carry/discharge pyrotechnics.
6. It IS NOT legal to fly over or in a built-up area.
7. It IS NOT legal to fly above 150 feet (45m), except at registered clubs/airfields, where you can fly up to 400 feet (120m)

If you choose to break the law it doesn’t matter if you claim you’re “not being a chop”, you are still liable. Eishkom might not be able to keep the lights on, but you can bet the cops will make an example out of you. Additionally, as of a couple of months ago there is proposed legislation that is specifically for multicopters/drones/UAS, so it is important to pay attention to what the SACAA is doing in that regulatory space.

I fly mine every weekend. I have a close associate who serves on the CAA board and he himself sad that they don’t have the means or man power to apply any ban. Ask yourself this…. If there is a ban , would you be able to buy a drone ?
If there is such a strict ban in place would you be able to import drones by the thousands as is happening at the moment ? Here are some stats. Lasts. Month alone 142 units were sold by one company. There is an estimate that more than 12000 units are active in South Africa. With more than 350 on any given weekend….. The gov wants to control drones, yet it cannot maintain the law like road traffic….. Please buddy…. Give me a break. I have 3 drones and I will fly them till kingdom comes. Per haps you should read the CAA documents before you comment further. The law will apply to those who want to fly drones as a commercial prospect.

fluffypony

Will, you didn’t read anything I read, and so your reply makes you look like an idiot.

At no point in my response did I say that owning or flying a “drone” was illegal. I merely pointed out the ease with which you can break the law (e.g. by ascending higher than 45m when not at a designated field/club). The onus is on the individual as to whether they want to break the law or not.

I live 25 minutes away from SteadiDrone, and I build and fly multicopters as a hobby. I have significantly more than 3 high-powered quadcopters and a pretty big workshop. I know what I’m talking about, and I have educated myself on this subject. Your statement about having a “close associate who serves on the CAA board” is a weak attempt at trying to sound self-important, but then you only end up making a fool of yourself by failing to read what I said.

Your closing comment is both incredibly irresponsible and factually incorrect: the laws apply to ALL hobbyists, commercial flyers ARE NOT ALLOWED TO FLY without exemption from the CAA.

Bobro

I think you both miss understood each other… I don’t think Will was saying ‘don’t be a chop, GO fly at the air field’… he was saying ‘don’t be a chop and fly it at an airfield’, as in ‘don’t fly near an airfield’.. Fluffy then responding by saying ‘there are laws about that kind of stuff’, then Will returned with ‘it is not illegal to fly drones’… i think you both have grabbed at the wrong end of two totally different sticks.

fluffypony

I’m aware of what he was saying, and my response was precisely because of that. His implication was that you can do whatever you want as long as you’re “not being a chop” and you’re “not flying near an airfield”. The reality is that there *are* laws and there is legal precedent for you to be fined and even imprisoned. Saying “don’t be a chop” like that’s got some legal weight or definition is silly – can you imagine if you’re flying all over your neighbourhood, and then when the cops come because people are freaking out you say “no but Will told me it’s fine as long as I’m not a chop”?

The bottom line is that people are going to obey these laws like they obey speed limits or like Cape Town drivers use their indicators, but it’s critical – imperative even – that in this fledgling hobby we cultivate a knowledge of the law, so that people will feel more inclined to go to the Drakensberg and buzz a mountain at 400m than try do the same thing in the middle of the Sandton CBD. If we don’t do this then we’ll end up with people like Will who think they’re fine because they’re “not being a chop”, when meanwhile they’re outrightly breaking the law and often endangering others without even realising it.

Bobro

I agree with what ur saying but a post on a blog shouldn’t be an essay detailing every law in grate detail. Don’t be a chop is a broad swipe of the brush as to suggest don’t do things ur not supposed too, clearly one of the big ones is airports, I’m pretty sure if someone in a field several miles from anyone tried a bit of fpv then no one is calling scottland yard… Even I once left my drone hovering in an empty field while I went out of line of site to get my camera… It’s hardly the same as flying over Heathrow.. The box clearly states not to fly over stadiums or near people etc. This is just a blog post.. Also u can’t really think people get their hard legal facts from a blog post that is accessible by any layman from anywhere on or off the planet… U judged his simple blog post to harsh.

fluffypony

So your problem is that I’m candid? Come, now, we aren’t a bunch of primary school children on the sports field. We’re grown men and women, and if we can’t be frank and direct then we’ll end up like the Americans, too afraid of being sued by their own shadow to be clear and concise.

More to the point, the question that was asked was “is it legal in South Africa to fly Drone’s” (sic). The correct answer to that is to list the basic guidelines that should be followed in order to remain complicit with the law. At an absolutely basic, elevator conversation level that means the height ceiling, not flying at night, and not flying over houses or roads.

It is beyond irresponsible to give poor, legally incorrect, and incomplete advice to the general public (even via a blog comment) if you do not have the legal grounding to do so. I mentioned this is a fledgling hobby, and that is critical – anything even mildly potentially dangerous to other people (guns, cars, planes, fireworks) ends up with a stack of regulation and licenses etc. Right now flying a multicopter is free and easy, but if enough idiots like Will encourage other idiots to fly irresponsibly (and illegally) we will end up with much tighter legislation on flying. Want to have to pass and maintain an RC pilot’s license just to fly a $600 multicopter? Keep encouraging that sort of irresponsible commentary.

Bobro

By your logic, why stop at basic? You also need the laws on filming and photography and privacy in there too.. But let’s face it this is not the place for all tha, this is a blog the answer to his question is simply ‘yes it is legal’ a follow up of ‘check your local laws for restrictions on flying and filming along with commercial use’ would not of been a miss but to go into any great detail is a bit much to demand or expect…

fluffypony

Your use of the slippery slope fallacy is illogical, doubly so in this context. The laws governing photography or privacy are already afforded substantial consideration just by following the laws governing multicopters.

It’s important to note that, in this instance, someone was asking about the specific laws for a specific country. It’s analogous to someone asking if it is legal to have a handgun in South Africa. The answer should not be “yes it is, just don’t be a chop and kill someone”, as that is the most basic of tenets. The answer should be yes it is, but you need to get licensed, and you can’t conceal carry” or whatever (I’m not familiar enough with gun legislation, but this is an analogy).

There was no expectation of Will going into “any great detail”, I did so in order to provide a counterpoint to his grossly irresponsible answer. He absolutely could have said that it is legal, and linked to one or two news articles that elaborated on the specifics. You cannot expect vagueness and hand-waving to work when dealing with areas that require specificity (such as software development, structural engineering, the law, and medicine).

The bottom line is this: Will clearly is not a lawyer, and clearly has no clue how the legal system works. As such, he’d do well to shut up and not say anything when someone asks a legal question. He was not obligated to respond to that comment at all. By doing so he makes himself directly liable should people act on his harebrained and incomplete advice.

Bobro

you think Will would be liable..really, someone follows a post from a different country by some random guy who has never claimed to be a legal expert would be liable from a lackadaisical comment… i am sure they would extradite him and punish him with the full force of that country’s law… also yeah, if some one said, is it legal to have a gun in UK, one could answer ‘yeah but you need a license’ there would obviously be an extensive amount of legal litrature around the types of guns, age, exceptions, how you go about getting a license etc etc etc… but this is a blog and not a free legal session by experts…

Also if you give some of the legal advise but not all then you are doing worse because it would come across to someone that that is all they need to know and they might not look further into it. yes he might of done more but you didnt need to be so harsh… you might be thinking all papers and buracacy and shit but this is the internet, this is a blog this is not the crown court. what you should of done is simply add to the comment by saying… ‘there are a lot of laws to consider when flying them, you are best checking local literature on the subject or contacting any local clubs you can find. here is a link ….’

my point was less about your details or details in general it was how harsh you came down on someone just for not giving as much detail as you would have done, when you could of simply added to the conversation. and then to make such a big deal about the details my point is then why did you not make sure that ALL the details were listed.

fluffypony

From a different country? What are you talking about!?? OP asked about drone laws in South Africa, Will responded, I corrected him. The context has been and is still about the law in South Africa, not any other country.

As to the rest of your word salad it could use some structure and a spell check. I don’t have time to parse your nonsense.

Bobro

Oh a another grammar nazi with such little time, why were u not this busy when u were being a prick.

And I know what the op was but as I tried to give u the benefit of the doubt for responding like a dick to Will that u might of misunderstood u went off on one just furthering the point u are a douche. U don’t see it, u think ur being the better bigger smarter person but ur the kind of prick the Internet hateS Too busy looking down over ppl u can correct u don’t care about being nice and polite.

fluffypony

Oh I see. We’re all children at preschool where we’re learning about “respecting others” and “being nice” and “treating others like you want to be treated”, right? Maybe later we’ll hold hands around the bonfire and sing Kumbaya.

Meanwhile, back in the adult world, respect is earned and not just given outright. If Will wants to be treated with respect then he shouldn’t give erroneous and incorrect legal advice. If you want to be treated with respect then you should stop relying on logical fallacies to make your point, and you can pair that with some third grade spelling lessons.

Bobro

Ppl like u make the world a horrible place. You think being nice and polite should be reserved for ppl who have earned your respect, Will like I probably have no interest in earning ur respecT. u put your yourself on a pedestal of superiority on a simple blog post. You cAll yourself an adult yet u don’t know how to cconduct yourself in a sivalised manneR. Ur excuse for being a dick was he was wrong.. Explain how that warrants ur out burst. And I’m sick of going over this but 1) the English language is evolving with time u will see spelling change to adapt to new technologies for example ye old pub used to be a thing but it’s not now, evolution. 2)English was invited from butchering several other languages badly together. 3) be it that this is a global stage the Internet does not follow to the structure of an English exam as those on it might not be naturally English. 4) none of this post was about spelling ur just throwing another thing to look down on ppl For But it doesn’t bother me was told I was dyslexic at school so yeah I know my spelling is baD U picking on it just shows ur a prick.

Fluff your response is ignorant…PERIOD! You “imply” from your first sentence that it is illegal. You then post regulations…here’s a thought…STFU! Know-it-all

fluffypony

Of course it’s illegal to break the law, that’s the very definition of “illegal”. Did the whole human race up and forget how to comprehend things overnight??

Will Granzier

I did read your post. The information that you posted was given our as prelim release by CAA. I have someone whom I work with on a weekly basis who is on the CAA board. The problem is not the regulations sir. The problem is enforcing it. Numerous suggestions were made by various operators but were blatantly ignored, with the exception of one operator who now has a blanket control over “enforcing” these rules.

And yes my point is – DONT BE A CHOP – the problem that we have in this country is that daddy gets Johnny a drone and the first thing Johnny wants to do is see how high it can go. many of us that use drones use them in a controlled environment, are skilled pilots that have been flying RC for years. If you fly a drone you fly it with the same mindset and controls in place as you would a real helicopter. If you do that you will be safe.

DONT BE A CHOP !!! I am all for taking on those that do dumbass things. As for me I will fly every weekend, I will gather footage because its what I do for a living.

If the CAA took the route that the FAA did in America asking pilots to register on a database, creting an app that allows them to see where and when it was safe to fly with, this impass would not be reached.

How can you effective ban the use of an item, yet the item is the sold by more than 300 shops across the country everyday ??!

Its because we have idiots running the show…. SO DONT BE AN CHOP !!!!

Will Granzier

So you see the loop holes in your post…. If someone flies. Drone and gives you the footage you’re cool…. But if they charge you you’re not ….. Mmmmm me smell a rotten fish here and a massive loophole

Will Granzier

Uhhhh… I recently fore for the cops to get footage of one of their sites. So I await the arrest warrant

Will Granzier

And everything you posted we knew a year ago…..

Yuji

Or reaching distance of Wifi is really a less than 100M?

Also, do I true to say that the radio has Return Home does not start to cut?

This is a fatal

Automatically do you become so Retrun Home is started in an update?

Akila Zhang

Take a look at my post. It will not go beyond 100 meters without skycontroller. Not even 80 meters. The drone wont go back home when connection is lost. It hovers till battery almost dead then it will execute automatic landing procedure.

Matt

When will it be available in the United States?

Joe

On sale now at Best Buy, I have had one over a week now. No sky controller yet.

bebopready

How far can you fly it? Also do you worry that they will only sell the sky controller in a $900 package and not independently for $400?

http://www.parrot.com Parrot

You can fly till 2km with the Skycontroller.
For the moment, there is only bundle : Skycontroller & Bebop Drone.

Reza Hekmat

I have the sky controller and i can tell you that there is no way to achieve 2KM. This is completely theoretical value to me. From my balcony in my apt I fly about 80M and the W+ light is down to one light and I turn back for fear of loosing control.

Reza Hekmat

I have also tested in a completely different area (different country in fact) and i get the same results. The only people I see getting true good range are people in completely open fields with little to no WiFi related objects around.

Kevin Bob

ey so when is that sky controller coming out guys, would really like to have a date before i preorder from B&H

Diego Souza

First I need to make it clear that I’m not a drone starter, I have been flying couple of other drones before.

Last week I bough a Drone from Parrot company.

I did the purchase through the Best Buy online store, with the store pick up selection…

Great.. I was really excited to have the drone in my hands, since I have watched many videos about this drone and was really engaged to have one.

I went to the store and picked it up… then my problems started…

First Drone – Got the drone and went home to fly.. Unpacked it and started to fly using my Iphone 5s… then I realized that the wifi connection was going back and forward… very wired.. I tried with my IPAD and my wife’s iphone and the problem continued… when I connected with my nexus 5 the connection were more stable, and I could to fly.. I though the problem could be fixed just restarting the drone after taking it’s battery off… Well didn’t work…. The result… I was flying and lost the connection and the wind pushed my drone against a wall, result.. The camera was broke….

OK went to Best buy and related the problem, and they told me that I have to use my accidental plan that I have purchased too, in order to replace the drone(even being a problem with the drone)… Ok I did it.

Second Drone – After the replacement.. Went home again to fly it.. Unpacked one more time.. And what… the hotspot from the Drone was not working at all… one more time I went to best buy and replaced it.

Third Drone – At this time I was a little bit frustrated, but Ok, it happens…. And guess what.. This drone came with a missing part in the bottom back, it is a screw that connects to a red cushion.. And without it the drone was very unstable since it was a bit crocked.. So very hard to pilot and manage the drone…. And again the problem with the wifi with my Ipad and Iphones…. Result.. Went to best buy again to replace it.. Third time in less than 7 days.. The best buy employees at this time was laughing about me…. Not kidding.

Fourth Drone – I have now the fourth drone with me.. The drone looks good, but again the connection with IPADs and iPhones still as a problem.. And I’m getting crazy thinking that the problem was my Iphone and Ipad, but it is impossible to have 3 devices with the same problem…. 2 iphones and 1 ipad.. So I tried with one more Iphone and the problem was the same… btw.. Even flying close to the drone… like 20 meters away in an open location….. And the most wired, connecting to my nexus 5 it worked.. Lol.. I guess I’m the guy with the most bad luck ever when buying these drones.

Now I was thinking to buy the sky controller to solve the connection problem.. But guess what, they do not sell it separately… crying now……. Just want to fly with my Drone..

The product is great, well done, and the design is amazing.. I just realized that they don’t like me.. …

Octavian

That smells! Can you call Parrot to explain? Reading your comment persuaded me to not buy their product. I really did like their promo videos, but what comes out of the box seems a far cry from the reality of the machines actual performance. Parrot better hook you up with their Sky Controller. It is really the only right thing to do. Write me back later and tell me how it turns out, will you? Thanks, -Tom

G&M

Hi Diego,

this is a bug with ios (starting with ios7) and the freeflight app.

I know this from my AR.Drone 2.0.

I also get grey hair, till I found the solution:

Turn of the location access of the app in the security setting of IOS.

Than
you might only able to fly with joystick mode – no absolute control
mode anymore (I just know freeflight 2.x) but the connection will be
stable with ipad and iphone.

KK

Hi Parrot,
Bebop Drone Launch Date in Dubai Duty Free?

Daniel

I have the BeBop drone and love it! However I am looking to purchase the sky controller and can not find it forsale anywhere please direct me

Dario Brivio

Question: if the drone lose connection and I am not able to restablish it, will it come home automatically after a while or just land in the place just below its position?

http://www.parrot.com Parrot

When Wifi connection is
lost, Bebop Drone will hoover for 2 minutes before triggering the Return to
Home Feature.

Reza Hekmat

I have read in the blogs that the Return To Home feature is sometimes not working correctly, so what happens then if you loose connection? Just hovers until battery dies? Thank you.

http://www.parrot.com Parrot

Hi, 2 minutes without any WiFi connection before Bebop starts automatically Return to Home.
This value will be lowered to 1 minute in next firmware version

http://batman-news.com Nighty

Hi, nice post about the ranges and regulations.

1) Can you confirm that everyone should self take care of the right app settings?
If he choose the wrong US settings the drone may work with illegal 4 W in EU with that settings?

Okay sure the smartphones WiFi will not work with 4W in EU, but what about the drones and the sky controller?
2) How the sky controller increase his range vs smartphones? Which output power it uses and how it detects the country regulations here? Automatically or also via the smartphone app? Oh one more question I don’t know. Can you fly it without a smartphone attached to the sky controller?

————- Other topic ———-
19.12.2014 should be a release in Germany, Our stores and Internet showed that the last week. But it seems that there is no availability today in the stores or in amazon.de
Maybe our charges for EU used for the replacements by the US warranty?

@thelove Do you test the range before or after you read that post? •You fly on 1.5 m over the ground. do you hold your iPad 2 Air as described above? Not shielding the antennas with a case or the hands? Which county you use (Auto detect? )

Best regards
Nighty –> Owner of a AR Drone 2.0 only.

http://www.parrot.com Parrot

1) Can you confirm that everyone should self take care of the right app settings? If he choose the wrong US settings the drone may work with illegal 4 W in EU with that settings? Okay sure the smartphones WiFi will not work with 4W in EU, but what about the drones and the sky controller?

Indeed: Bebop Users are responsible for the way they decide to configure the device and are required to respect local laws and rules.

2) How the sky controller increase his range vs smartphones? Which output power it uses and how it detects the country regulations here? Automatically or also via the smartphone app? Oh one more question I don’t know. Can you fly it without a smartphone attached to the sky controller?

Sky Controller uses Wifi antenna in order to keep a proper connection with the Bebop Drone for 2 km. Power supply
is provided by a battery which is identical to the Bebop’s. Bebope setting are set in the factory and based on the country the product is set. It can be modified from the app.

Michael David Hiltner

Thanks for sharing this important technical information!

http://batman-news.com Nighty

Where is my comment gone? I asked about what happen if you select the wrong country? What is the output of the drone’s WLAN then? 4W if I select US for example?

http://www.parrot.com Parrot

Country can be changed inside the application. Based on this,
frequencies can be quite different.

http://batman-news.com Nighty

And I asked about the output of the Sky Controller ! Does it get the output power also from the App? Is it also 4 W if I select US ?

alberto

Hi

I am an experience drone guy and for me this is one of the worst drone I have ever flown , even its fail-safe function is Dangerous .

– no user manual at all , just an unusable quick start guide

-Problems with wifi connection , if you loose it , it take a long time to reconnect or even you never reconnect it again

-some times you get an engine failure message

-Very sort range even at non other wifi environment

-No wifi password protection , its easy to hack

-Some times at take-off it jumps like a rocket to the ceiling ( indoor flying )

-Very poor gps positioning

-No telemetry , speed . distance , altitud etc .

-Image quality worst than a go-pro or a phantom vision for example , at low light unusable footage , some much grain

-No waypoints navigation capability , even return home sometimes does not work and you are not able to decide at what altitud it will do it

-if you hit accidentally the emergency button your drone stops and fall from the sky with no recovery option .

– Dangerous fail safe , if you loose connection it hovers till battery almost dead then it will execute automatic landing … imagine you are over water or trees … you will loose your drone or hit someone. You should be able to decide how it performs at fail-safe … immediate return home , climd to a certain altitud and come home or wait until connection reestablished .

-Very low capacity battery , and it´s Dangerous that after you get a “low batt” advise it auto land after 20 ” only

-no follow-me capability

Conclusion: there are a lot better options out there … don’t loose your money with this drone . On paper it looks grate but in real world it´s one of the worst drones you can buy
For example Iris from 3DR ( grate navigation capability ) or any of the phantoms ( even the phantom vision have a better camera ) .

FarVision1

I’m getting into Drone footage for our engineering company. IRIS starts at $750 without camera. To get it to AR3 levels (HD Cam + Image Stabilization + Viewing Monitor) gets into $1k+. DIY Builds go a little less, but not by much. I couldn’t build an AR3 for less than $500 – and it’s mostly due to the App. Good controllers are $150 and that’s without video. Believe me, I’ve been researching all day long on these things without spending a dime, and DIY builds hit $500, and that’s with zero support. By the time you outgrow this device, you will probably have to build your own.

Gil

Dose the Bebop & Skycontroller sold in Israel?

James Forbes

Hi so I live in the uk how far could I get using my iPhone 6 or iPad mini 3? 300 meters??

-No waypoints navigation capability , even return home sometimes does not work and you are not able to decide at what altitud it will do it

-if you hit accidentally the emergency button your drone stops and fall from the sky with no recovery option .

– Dangerous fail safe , if you loose connection it hovers till battery almost dead then it will execute automatic landing … imagine you are over water or trees … you will loose your drone or hit someone. You should be able to decide how it performs at fail-safe … immediate return home , climd to a certain altitud and come home or wait until connection reestablished .

-Very low capacity battery , and it´s Dangerous that after you get a “low batt” advise it auto land after 20 ” only

-no follow-me capability

Conclusion: there are a lot better options out there … don’t loose your money with this drone . On paper it looks grate but in real world it´s one of the worst drones you can buy
For example Iris from 3DR ( grate navigation capability ) or any of the phantoms ( even the phantom vision have a better camera ) .

Chris T

Hi,
thanks for this helpfull informations. I travel a lot to different countrys.

Are the Bebop Drones and/or Sky Controller sold with different Wifi-Adapters relating to the country where there are sold? Or is the maximum Wifi-power adjusted by software?

http://www.parrot.com Parrot

Wifi is set by the Parrot FreeFlight 3 application where you can select
you localization and adapt frequencies

DK

My Skycontroller does not pickup the Bebop WiFi network for some reason. I can connect to the drone via iPhone or iPad, but when I search for it via the Skycontroller the drone is not there (other networks are visible). What should I do to pair the two manually (in Australia)?

http://www.parrot.com Parrot

Hi,
To connect it to the Bebop drone, press the power button (or on/off button) located at the right side of the remote.

A signal tone indicates that the Parrot Bebop Drone is connected to the Parrot Skycontroller and ready to fly.

DK

I had to read up on the frequency selection. Once I understood it all I was able to set it up correctly and have had no problems since. I use 2.4G and automatic channel selection. That works every time. I’m very happy with this product

Hi, very nice video! Thanks for sharing! We hope that you enjoyed your flight!

Donnie Keele III

Finally got my Bebop in the mail a couple days ago. After reading a ton of these threads I was really careful to calibrate it before each flight. The connection issues with this thing are relentless. If it disconnects you can bet it won’t re-establish connection without disconnecting and reconnecting the battery first – maddening. I’ve also experienced the unstable indoor flight behaviors (shooting straight up into the ceiling, sharp banking into the wall) which made me really nervous about taking it outdoors. I took it to an open field today where there would be little to no wifi interferance and also told my iPad Mini 2 Retna to forget any other known networks. The 2-minute flight went ok but I was holding my breath the entire time with my thumb hovering over the ‘Emergency’ button the whole time.

Got it back inside and wanted to see my footage – discovered a whole new headache. It wouldn’t show any of my videos under the “my gallery” section in FF3 (yes, I was connected to it’s wifi…when it would allow me to) and it won’t appear as a drive on my Mac Mini when I plugged it in. Hopped online and discovered that many people were using Android File Transfer or FTP connections. (BTW, why is Apple selling this thing if it’s not Apple compatible? Seems odd…)

I downloaded Android File Transfer – no dice. Paid $15 for an FTP client app (Yummy FTP in the App Store) and established connection but was booted 10 seconds into the transfer and wouldn’t connect again until I disconnected and reconnected the Bebop battery (becoming a default solution). Went through this process several times until I tried resetting my computer as well. Same issue with FTP but all of a sudden Android File Transfer begins to work. I get three files from the Bebop before it freezes again…WITH A USB CONNECTION! Reset the Bebop several times and each time can only get a portion of a file…I finally gave up.

However, I did get the footage from my outdoor flight. Flight was at midday, clear sky, TONS of light. 1080p? Not a chance…I’d be hard pressed to call it 720. Lines are anything but crisp…nothing anywhere near the quality of a GoPro. On the positive side, the footage was stable even though it was pretty breezy out, the colors were OK, and the image isn’t distorted like a GoPro would be. Still, if you are thinking this will get you anywhere near professional footage…forget about it.

Parrot, your idea was DOPE but I’m beginning to think you rushed the Bebop to market for the xmas season. No spare parts available, no separate Sky Controller available, and features touted ON THE BOX or in your YouTube Ads are not yet available (GPS waypoint planning, “follow me” mode to name a few) and when they are you will charge me extra for them.

I bought your product ignoring the negative reviews because the idea of the thing is so exciting – Full HD FPV experience for $500?! But it’s getting less and less exciting all the time and I’m about 48 hours from calling it quits and saving up for something more proven. I refuse to go through what some of your other customers have (4 drones…really?!).

I ain’t mad at you, Parrot…I’m just really disappointed…I really wanted this to be as awesome as your promotional materials suggested it would be. Sorry for all the flack – sounds like you’re getting quite a bit of it lately…Capitalism’s a B like that sometimes…

Tim

Had same issue with the video footage not being in my gallery, but figured out a work around. Connect the USB to PC. Worked like a charm for me. Open the USB connection under my computer and open the bebop folder.Under it you will find a folder called media. All the footage is there.

szu

the part about the correct way to hold ipads or iphones does not work – nothing happens when i click on the device name (the page just scroll up).
this might be connected to the fact that some js files are missing (see the javascript console).

rigo hern

Does the bebop detects tethering? How do I connect it to my cell without a house wi fi?

http://www.parrot.com Parrot

Tethering is not required when connecting or using Bebop except for FreeFlight App.
In all cases, you must connect your cellphone directly to the Bebop in Wifi. There is no need to use another wifi network.

purrungas

Thanks, mental error from my part….not sure what the heck I was thinking

Antonis Thoma

Hello parrot team. I leave in Cyprus which is in Europe. I have recently order a bebop with skycontroller and i am very excited. I want to avoid any accidents or signal lost. Can you give me an advise which is the best ghz – channel i have to set for the best fpv experience and range?? Thank you

Antonis Thoma

Thank you for the no reply parrot!!!

http://www.parrot.com Parrot

Hi, we are really sprry for the delay. We haven’t a precise answer:
• 2.4GHz is recommended to have better range.
• 5GHz is recommended to control and signal quality,

In addition, the choice of channel depends on the wireless space at the place of theft and therefore can be analyzed by yourself from the interface FreeFlight.

Kind regards,
Parrot’s Team

stanley Lam

Hi Parrot. I just bought the Bebop drone and searching for how to use the waypoints or GPS flight plan functions as advertised. I tried the Return home function. It was ok but not great （not accurate up to 5 meters radius）. I know the Follow Me function is still under development. Pls reply.
Thanks

stanlam

Hi Parrot，
I just bought a Bebop drone days ago and now testing the functions myself but couldn’t find any info about the advertised Waypoints or GPS flight plan etc. Pl. Share with me how to do that. I tried the Return Home function. It was not quite accurate. hovering in around 5 meters radius. Not great but still ok, further. Improvement is needed. I know the follow me function is not available yet, when will it come to live?
Thanks

http://www.youtube.com/Gh0stxSinghx Gh0stxSinghx

Do have download Documents the there? I want print or file keep on my mac os.

stanlam

Hi Parrot
Pls share how to use the ROAD PLAN function in Bebop. I can set the plan but don’t know how to activate the drone to follow the plan.
Thank you

Peter Erlebach

Bebob problem: it say motorphase not connected. There ist no visual problem to see. Problem occured even if it is switched off and on again,which happend earlier. Pls see photos. Any idea?pls help thanks peter

Philip Daniel ED

What happens if i change from Austria to USA ?
Do i get more range ?

Peter Erlebach

motorfase not connected: i solved problem, it s defintly a software problem but there is a work around: repair as follows, open drone, head, diconnect during switched on mode, both motor plugs, switch off, switch on, check both lines are now disconected,plugin both again. Make sure both are proper connected. Switch off and on again, you will immediate hear that motors are checked by the software. Good luc

Juan Jose Corona

so, what it better?? Manual/channel6 or Auto 2.4 Im in US/California

Frabig

hi Parrot the Return to Home Button will not work, why???

Stephen Tan

Guys,

The Bebop is really well-engineered…

I was flying it today with the skycontroller in the middle of an open field of about 500m x 700m and climbed to 110m high. Suddenly the Freeflight on my tablet crashed, and my Bebop fell from 110m high.

Curiously, I noticed that it tended to fall flat downwards after an initial spining around. I suppose the centre of gravity of the drone, coupled with the wind-resistance of the props, ensured that it landed in an upright position.

And it did… on a very thin patch of grass on top of a packed dirt surface… And amazingly, nothing broke. The props were OK, the lens was OK…

Superior engineering and design! Nothing of this price level and above could have survived a fall from this height!

Just so its clear, I was flying right in the middle of an open field, with no trees and no human beings (other than myself) for a radius of about 500m…

Jesse Schmidt

I too had a rather cheek clenching moment: We were investigating whether we could inspect some structural towers at a plant when I got too close and it hit a beam. The drone cut power and dropped over 80 feet to the cement! I was shocked to discover no damage and as stated above the drone landed right side up! The only suggestion I could give in development is perhaps an auto recover? Say after the done falls a couple of meters it turns the motors back on and hovers? Just a though if possible.

Stephen Tan

The rotors tend to cut out after hitting something, and I think that’s a good safety feature. I think you can try pressing the take-off button again to rotate the rotors again to maneuver.

It it simply fell because of VRS (Vortex Ring State) from descending too quickly, you can try to max the pitch to try to fly out of the vortex.

Lostinmirboonorth

Well parrot, this was a big waste of money! I got two days of fun and admited it was fantastic but while i was waiting for a battery to charge i flew not more then 15m away from me and maybe the same hight on my phone. It lost connection with my phone and started going straight up!!!! Then from what i can tell the wind pushed it accross 4+ paddocks with me frantically chasing it accross creeks, shrubs, blackberrys and through barb wire fences before i could no longer keep up and lost sight. Now the best i can figure is its in scrub in a massive paddock somewhere and i have no idea how to find it! Why would it not do a return to home or land as soon as it losses conection?

lokus 220

question is there any official store

http://www.parrot.com Parrot

Hello, in which country do you live?

‘Adin Ad

Hi Parrot, How about Indonesia?
Any official Parrot store here? (or just an official reseller, perhaps?)

lokus 220

like parrot

edc

4 days after my purchase of my drone and sky controller set. My sky controller have no WiFi singal.I can only see the drone WiFi signal but not from the controller… Is there any setting issue involoved or reset is possible?!

Do you recommend any Wi-Fi range extenders for those people that don’t have skycontrollers and would like to increase their flying distance?

Fred

Sorry Parrot, but this page is really unclear. First you write
“The Wifi transmitter of Skycontroller is more powerful in 5 GHz than in 2.4 GHz. The power is limited following the regulations of each country. The maximum power at 2.4 GHz is about 400 mW, it is about 4W at 5 GHz on channel 157.”

And a bit later you write
“The transmission power of the Bebop is the same at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. It is necessary to emit twice the power at 5 GHz to have the same reach than at 2.4 GHz”

So what is it now: do you emit twice the power at 5 GHz or do you emit 10x the power at 5 GHz (400 mW versus 4W). And does 5 GHz then go further with twice the power than 2.4 GHz?

And finally why is Channel 6 best for 2.4 GHz? The power is no different on channel 5, 7, 8 or 4!

Hello,
For all technical issues, we recommend you to contact our hotline: http://www.parrot.com/support/
Please keep us informed on your case.
Kind regards,
Parrot’s Team

Treesofgold

I’d like to know: What does the Bebop Drone’s “Emergency” button do? I’ve never pressed it because I didn’t want to break it…

http://www.parrot.com Parrot

Emergency stands for Emergency landing.

Pad.A

That’s a really shockingly poor reply Parrot ^ ! – You can hardly call it ‘landing’ – plummet is more appropriate – the button should be protected in some way so that it cannot be accidentally touched when say adjusting the camera angle ( which itself should have its own control button in FF3 ) – the true reply is its an emergency stop – its cuts off the power to the rotors meaning the device plummets dangerously to the ground !

Miguel Angel Palicio Martínez

When using my skycontroller my iPad always detects a strong network using channel 6. I think that network is produced by skycontroller (I tried switching it off and the network dissapears). Should I avoid using channel 6 or may I select that channel on my ipad? I mean could my iPad cause interference with the skycontroller if I set both the dame channel? I am a bit confused about this topic.
Thank you in advance

Arty

Hey I have been seaching the net to try and find out how I can create a xet of waypoints so I can get the Bebop to fly a set path say allong the cliffs nrad out to sea and then follow the cuastline. Is this function available if so can you direct me to the link.

http://www.parrot.com Parrot

Hello, the Flight Plan feature isn’t yet available. We will keep you informed on this topic.
Kind regards,
Parrot’s Team

owiz22 .

Hi .. I am having challenges with my newly acquired bebop.
I tested it and worked ok, but the next time I tried to fly it, my phone would not see the wifi signal. I tried everything but the device is not broadcasting the signal. I tried with another phone and the same thing happened where it picked the signal at first, but then it just disappeared and would not work.
I need help on what to do. Thanks.

http://www.parrot.com Parrot

Hello, we recommend you to contact our support team for all technical issues: http://www.parrot.com/usa/support/
Our hotline will help you solve your problem.
Please keep us informed on your case.
Kind regards,
Parrot’s Team

Srinath

I’ve just bought the bebop with the skycontroller. it mentioned/talked about the way point navigation.. even saw that in one of the videos, where you select some points on a map, and the bebop flies thru the way points selected. so my question is, where can i find that feature? how to do that?

http://www.parrot.com Parrot

Hello, this feature isn’t availbale yet. It will come soon.
We will keep you informed.
Please stay tuned.

Tamas Tokai

How soon.. How many programmer working at the company… 1?

Michael Highers

Why hasn’t anyone developed GSM or CDMA for drones? fly anywhere without line of sight for the cost of a phone data plane. . . only makes sense and would totally open the commercial market applications. dumbasses

Jonathan McNamara

Here you are my range test with skycontroller… 2km and could do more

Tamas Tokai

How did you do that ?
Would you share settings

Jonathan McNamara

You just have to follow all the recommendations from Parrot:
2.4 GHz, channel 6 USA. Open field, no humidity and pointing the SKC in the direction of the Bebop (nothing between you and the bebop… 😉

Tamas Tokai

im actually confused with out door button.. so when is out door when blue or transparent??

Hi parrot, I just bought one bebop drone two days back . I purchased a lenovo S8 tablet to pilot the bebop. Unfortunately the tab is not detecting bebop’s WiFi .The tab is android with KitKat. I took the drone and tab to the vendor, there they rebooted the drone and it detected the WiFi, I flied a few times there. But when I reached home and tried, it again failed to detect the WiFi. I tried with another android device of my friend ,(HTC desire 820) that device detects WiFi of bebop. Can anybody help me to solve the issue. What devices are compatible with bebop drone.

payten

So does everyone have pretty decent delay on tablet or just me I thought I would be able to fly the drone specifically off the tablet screen when I was high in the air but such a larch delay

Tamas Tokai

Any update for following mode or flight plan????????

lms414

iPhone 3G/3GS/4/4S/5/5S/5C/6/6Plus in stock for sale at much more reduced prices.

How do I get my Bebop to respond to my Sky Controller, rather than to my tablet?

Aaron

How do I get my Bebop to respond to my Sky Controller, rather than to my tablet?

tatopelayo

i bought the skycontroler about 7 days ago… it arribe 2 days ago and in this morning i only used it for one hour then i turn off the skycontroler for about 5 to 10 min then i turn it on again and now not even my iphone 5s or ipad 2 cant detect the wireless of the skycontroler… i have done many things like restaring the skycontroler or my iphone or ipad and theres no sign of detecting the skycontroler wifi… if you can give me an advise i will be so glad to hear it

http://www.parrot.com Parrot

Hello we are really sorry to hear that. Can you please contact our support team on our dedicated page: http://www.parrot.com/usa/support/?
Our hotline will help you fix your porblem.
Kind regards,
Parrot’s Team

kamcza

HI. I use Bebop for 2 days now. In every flight (close distances max 50m, with skycontr.) I experience blue screens. It flashes both on live-view and on recorded video. It happens mostly when I turn, but also when bebop stays in air with no move. It is quite frustrating, I cannot make even one clear vieo-shot. Where should I look for solution ?

http://www.parrot.com Parrot

Hello, we are really sorry for what happened.
For all technical issues, we recommend that you contact our support team on our dedicated page: http://www.parrot.com/usa/support/
You’ll be taken care of by our hotline.
Kind regards,
Parrot’s Team

simono

Hey all,

So I came here wondering how to get around the 150m altitude limit (I know, illegal/probably impossible) and I saw all this angst about advertised range and altitude. I use a iphone 5c(heap) and it does suck with range, even at 2.4GHz. I could not ascend more than 70 m without losing connection and I would be lucky to get 100 m horizontal range. I have had several situations where the drone lost signal OVER THE OCEAN and I was unable to reconnect. It didn’t fly home. I waded/swam out and caught it as it tried to land on the water. Talk about a nail biter.

Anyway, I wanted to share something I did that will eliminate your range concerns. I didn’t get a skycontroller, which is not available separately anyway and while its great its huge. I bought a Netgear EX6200 Wireless AC1200 dual band wifi repeater with some $5 20dBi omnidirectional antennas. I got some cheap LiFePo4 batteries and a voltage controller and stuck it all together. The whole setup cost me about US$120. Now, I can fly at least 1 km away at max altitude (150 m) with my iphone and have no problems. I am sure I could fly further but I am too scared!

You definitely cannot see the drone anymore at 1 km/150 m, and the 2.4GHz video feed has some noticeable latency. But it responds perfectly to your control inputs and you can fly easily.

Just saying, its fine to complain but you can also solve your own problems.

Parrot: The IS is great, but is there anything you can do about the pixel blur under acceleration? I don’t know what causes it, but even though its “1080p”, it looks terrible. I would value a fix for that more than any GPS guidepath or “follow the narcissist” feature.

Olaf Crato

had another bebop flyaway for no good reason and the drone landed ina puddle, now it won’t connect to my ipad’s wifi, even after compeletely drying/cleaning it. Any recommendations?

http://www.parrot.com Parrot

Hi, we are really sorry to hear that.
We recommend you contact our support team for all technical issues: http://www.parrot.com/usa/support/
You’ll be help properly.
Kind regards,
Parrot’s Team

Tamas Tokai

Thank God, I could sold my bebop, and bought a dji phantom 3 Big different !

jfgildepareja

Hi. This is my first post. I have been flying my bebop with skycontroller and samsung s5 mini (my second flight). It reached a heigth of 149 meters, but lost connection. I´m not sure to flight the bebop only with the skycontroller, withouth the help of a tablet or a smarthphone, in order to increase the range of the flight. Is too small to be seen in distances > 100 meters. Is there any way to increase the range of the bebop without loosing the WiFi signal of the smarthphone using the skycontroller? Thanks

jfgildepareja

Hi. This is my first post. I have been flying my bebop with
skycontroller and samsung s5 mini (my second flight). It reached a
heigth of 149 meters, but lost connection. I´m not sure to flight the
bebop only with the skycontroller, withouth the help of a tablet or a
smarthphone, in order to increase the range of the flight. Is too small
to be seen in distances > 100 meters. Is there any way to increase
the range of the bebop without loosing the WiFi signal of the
smarthphone using the skycontroller? Thanks

jfgildepareja

Today I’ve made a range test with the Skycontroller and Samsung S5 mini. It lost the signal at 490 meters. It started by itself the back home after 1′ 05”. I recovered it. Perhaps It is adjusted to the loyal rules of my country. Anyway I don’t like nor need to fly so far with it, I prefer to keep the bebop into my vision range.

Derek Eadie

Hi, just got my bebop today. I have a question about altitude. Were I to climb a hill to say 300 meters which is higher than the official max altitude of bebop and fly my drone horizontally away from the hill and as such 300 meters above ground. Would the drone descend or remain at the height of the sky controller?

Ernest

why can’t i get video feed when i connect my iphone 6 with the skycontroller

lms414

iPhone 3G/3GS/4/4S/5/5S/5C/6/6Plus in stock for sale at much more reduced prices.

In Spain frequencies in 5,8Ghz (5725-5825) are ALLOWED to be used outdoors since march 2010 at 1W with TPC and 500mW without. Why do you put all europeans in the same limited bag? Every european country has self regulations!

Mine barely gets 20-30m away from me without losing video, but controls work!
+ my return homr was about to smash my drone to nearest power line and lost antrnna at same time! It was so scary but i saved it! When it was about to hit! Based on these things im nit even gonna try the flip! Worried that it might hit itself to ground or something

jailbush

Wi Fi
in the schools is a disaster. Constant screen viewing hampers
brain development, cognition and the biological effects of chronic
microwave exposure may cause cancer, neurological problems, blood brain
barrier permeability, reproductive harm, etc. There are now over a
dozen sperm studies that confirm sperm damage from using a laptop.
Microwave radiation from Wi-Fi routers was classified a Class 2B
carcinogen by the W.H.O. in 2011. None of these microwave emitting
devices were ever pre-market safety tested. When we measured the
microwave
exposure in my daughter’s school it was 50x’s higher than standing 100
feet from a cell tower. Science confirms this but the 4 trillion dollar
telecommunications industry buys scientists, media and members of high
profile agencies. Industry money is the second
highest source of revenue that the U.S. “Government” has. How can it be
that the FCC is funding this disaster and is also in charge of
regulating microwave exposures of wireless devices. Exposure levels in
the US
are 100 x’s higher than levels in Russia and China. What do they know
about harm that we are not telling??? 34
Scientific Studies Related to Exposure to Microwave Radiation from
Wi-Fihttp://www.wirelesswatchblog.org

Can you adjust the return to home default altitude? The default is 10 meters but I live in the forest and need the default to be 50 meters.

RegemWolf

Is it possible to secure the drones WiFi with a password to make sure no else connects?

Dlanyer

Hi. I would like to know the maximum flying altitude for bebop drone with and without the sky controller

Anthony Porreca

I fly this thing with my Samsung note 5 and for all your guys complaints I have none, the thing goes everywhere I want it and farther then I can even see the dam thing, it’s small light fast. Planning on upgrading to better 5000 mah universal batteries. it flies awsome .

Anthony Porreca

Flyes*

Guy Caudullo

Can’t get more than 250 meters without itdropping out of range even without no obstacles, a far cry less than 2km very disappointing that company’s lie to make sales I could have bought a no name brand that would.fly further than this

Henry Slan

I was recently looking at dji phantom drones for the same price as the parrot and saw that the live video feed went up to 2.4/5 miles. I was wondering if parrot could release a sky controller ad on/mod in the near future without releasing a whole new drone. I am writing this in 2016 as I have the parrot bebop 2 with the black sky controller

Muhammad Hadi

For Singapore, why does the sky controller have a further range with 5g rather than 2.4G. What’s the best setting for Singapore, one to connect phone with skycontroller and to connect sky controller with drone

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Samara Samara

Im a new user I got bebop 2 and I hardly got 40meters with iPhone 5s !!!! Any help!!?

rip per

hei. how can put a password in parrot drone wifi

Jeremie

Cannot get drone to get gps lock so cant use flightcontrol help please

Mc Lukas

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Brandon K Marek

I would love to know when they will add the flip/trick features to the sky controller so we do not have to use a tablet device at all if you already own googles. Wearing your fpv goggles and trying to do flips is next to impossible because there is no easy access button on the controller. However in the settings you can basically change what each button does so just add a feature that lets us hold a button down, flip the right joystick in the direction you want to flip, and release the button to continue flying….you know, LIKE EVERY OTHER CONTROLLER ON THE MARKET! PLEASE!!!!

Stefan Johansson

How do I fly longer then 350 meters , then my Skycontroller loose contact with the Drone

Stefan Johansson

How can I fly 2 km ?

Bob Fogle

What is the average Wi-Fi distance using an app on a Samsung S6 on a Bebop drone? I have lost my drone I need to know approximately the max distance I need to start working back from